68 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE. 
in Australia at the time of year when they can be least successfully 
made at other great observatories—Kodaikanal (India), Mt. Wilson 
(U.S.A.), South Kensington, &c. At the first of these the rainy season 
lasts from November till February, at the second from December till 
May, and at South Kensington work is out of the question during the 
English winter; consequently an observatory in Australia, where the 
sunshine is practically unfailing from November till March, is essential 
for supplying the solar ‘observations for this season of the year, and is 
necessary for the fulfilment of the scheme of international co-operation. 
The comment of Sir John Eliot, K.C.I.E., F.R.S. (late Astro- 
nomer and Meteorologist to the Indian Government), when this was 
pointed out to him, was: ‘ Sir, this observatory is not only advisable, 
it is essential.’ 
Besides the above reasons, which are of International Significance, there 
are others which may be classified as 
(d) Purely Scientific Reasons.—Apart from the educational value 
of astronomical research, the doctrine that all work should be relegated 
to the country most suitable for it requires that advantage should be 
taken of the unique climatic conditions of Australia, which is un- 
rivalled in the abundance of her sunshine and the clearness of her 
atmosphere. Such problems as the nature and cause of sun-spots, to 
which the recent discovery in America of vast vortices and intense 
magnetic fields has added so much importance—the nature of the 
corona and other solar appendages, the distribution of the elements 
over the solar disc, the pressure of the sun’s atmosphere, solar rota- 
tion, the cause of the remarkable differences between the spectra from 
the centre of the disc and from the limb, the connection betwen solar 
disturbances and terrestrial phenomena are all questions of world-wide 
interest, and it may be hoped that Ausfralia will share in the task of 
elucidating them. 
(e) Practical Reasons.—It would be to Australia’s advantage to 
undertake the work. Much has been written about the connection 
between solar and terrestrial phenomena, and it is the earnest hope of 
solar investigators that this subject may be fully dealt with at observa- 
tories well equipped for the purpose. The Council of the Royal Society 
of London urges the establishment of an observatory in Australia, 
‘ especially as the subject includes the connection between solar changes 
and meteorological and magnetic phenomena.” Moreover, the great 
work on solar radiation carried out in Washington by the Astrophysical 
Observatory of the Smithsonian Institution ‘ was deliberately under- 
taken in the hope of improving weather forecasts,’ and it is well known 
that the Indian Solar Observatory was erected in the belief that it would 
ultimately furnish results of direct value in famine prediction, the action 
taken by the India Office being based upon the Famine Commission 
Report of 1880. 
The arguments for the establishment in Australia of an observatory 
devoted to solar physics are summarised below :— 
National Reasons.-—(a) ‘ The advancement of science.’ (b) ‘ The 
educational advantages accruing from the study of an intellectual sub- 
ject.” (c) The practical advantages which meteorology may fairly 
